Inside the Room of Requirement, Leonard thought for a moment, then opened the diary again.
This time, he did not feed it the soul made from the Philosopher's Stone in advance. Instead, he simply took out a pen and wrote the word "Hello" on a blank page.
The ink quickly sank into the paper and was absorbed by the diary. A moment later, a short line appeared beneath Leonard's writing.
"Who are you?"
The handwriting was neat and orderly. It seemed Voldemort had had very good penmanship when he was young.
This time, the diary did not try anything strange. There was none of that subtle urge that made people want to pick it up. It behaved itself, and it replied almost instantly.
Very fast. It appeared in a snap. It was obvious this young Voldemort was starting to crack.
Of course Tom Riddle was cracking. He had thought he had finally run into some gullible fool who could help him break free, only to find that this fool did not treat him like a person at all.
He had leaked out only the tiniest bit of alluring magic, and for that he had been starved for more than a month. During that whole month, Tom Riddle had not even dared to sleep, afraid he might miss the next time this person opened the diary.
So all he could do was endure the maddening hunger and drag himself through the month in miserable suspense.
Thankfully, the effort had not been in vain. This person had opened the diary again.
Whatever the reason, whether out of curiosity or for some other purpose, as long as the diary was open, he still had a chance to cloud the other person's mind and do what he was meant to do.
Who am I?
Leonard smiled silently and wrote, "I'm a Slytherin student. I picked up this diary by accident."
As if I'd believe that.
Tom Riddle sneered to himself inside the diary.
If someone picked up a blank diary, would the first thing they write really be hello?
This was obviously aimed straight at him. And even now, this person was still trying to play dumb. Who was he looking down on?
Tom Riddle reluctantly continued writing in the diary.
"Don't joke around. What do you want? Why are you looking for me?"
In his weakened state, he could not see what was happening outside. He knew nothing about his own condition or the identity of the person holding the diary, so the only thing he could do was ask questions and try to piece together whatever information he could, whether true or false.
That kind of passivity irritated Tom Riddle to no end, but right now he did not even have a proper way to vent his anger.
"All right, it looks like you don't really trust me..." Leonard wrote on. "Then I'll just be direct. I want to open the Chamber of Secrets."
For Leonard, making Tom Riddle believe he had already taken control of him would have been too difficult. Leaving aside whether Tom Riddle even had that ability, Leonard had no intention of touching the diary in the first place, which ruled out any chance of being controlled.
It was better to just lay the cards on the table and save Mr. Tom Riddle from making blind guesses on his own.
"Open the Chamber of Secrets!"
Tom Riddle's handwriting appeared in the diary. It was clear that this young Voldemort was genuinely shocked.
"Where did you hear about the Chamber of Secrets? And how did you know this diary was mine?" Tom Riddle fired off question after question, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.
"That's none of your concern," Leonard wrote casually. "Just tell me whether you want to open the Chamber of Secrets or not. If you do, we work together. If not, forget it."
For a long while, no new writing appeared in the diary. Tom Riddle inside it had fallen into deep thought.
Only after thinking for quite some time did hesitant words slowly appear.
"I don't know who you really are or what you want. There's no way I can trust your word alone..."
Before he could finish, he sensed Leonard writing again.
"Oh, if you don't want to, then forget it..."
What do you mean, forget it?
At a time like this, wasn't this supposed to be the part where they bargained back and forth? Why was this person refusing to follow any normal logic?
Tom Riddle started to panic a little. He had the distinct feeling that whoever had picked up his diary was not quite right in the head.
"...Wait! I didn't say no..." he wrote instinctively.
"Oh? So are you willing to help me open the Chamber of Secrets or not?" Leonard scribbled at once.
"That's not the issue..."
You cannot seriously expect someone to agree just because you asked. There should at least be some kind of reward.
"Oh, so that's still a no." Leonard curled his lips into an amused smile and wrote on the blank page, "If you're going to refuse to cooperate no matter what, then I'll just tie this diary to a rock and flush it down a bathroom toilet..."
Are you a demon?
Tom Riddle's face turned green, assuming he still had a face in this state. Was this person doing it on purpose just to disgust him?
"I can agree, but first you have to agree to a few conditions of mine," Tom Riddle hurriedly wrote, afraid Leonard might suddenly act on impulse and really flush him away.
"Too much trouble. Boring."
"Wait! Hold on!"
The writing that appeared in the diary turned messy and frantic. At this point Tom Riddle no longer cared whether his handwriting stayed neat. The letters were practically running together.
"It's not that I don't want to help you. It's just that I'm too weak right now. I need to become stronger before I can help you open the Chamber of Secrets."
Leonard looked at the frantic scrawl in the diary and smiled faintly.
It was complete nonsense. Opening the Chamber of Secrets was both difficult and simple.
For people who did not know the trick, they would never find the entrance hidden in the abandoned girls' bathroom, and even if they did find it, they would not know how to open it.
But Leonard had read the story. He knew where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was, and opening it only required speaking the word "open" in Parseltongue.
Clearly, this Tom Riddle was trying to trick him.
Still, that was fine. Letting Tom Riddle think he had a slight advantage would only make him more eager.
"So... how do I make you less weak?" Leonard wrote.
"Don't you already know? Last time, you awakened me with that power." Words appeared in the diary again. Just looking at them, Leonard could feel Tom Riddle's impatience.
"Oh, you mean... a soul?" Leonard wrote with a smile. "But that's too dangerous. I only happened to get hold of a mindless soul by chance. I don't know what to do next."
"That's fine. You can touch the diary, and I'll tell you what to do." More words quickly appeared, urging Leonard to make contact with it. "Take off your dragon-hide gloves. I'll teach you what you need to know."